Leylâ Güngör

Leylâ Güngör — Biography

Leylâ Güngör (full name Leyla Asiye Güngör) was born on 29 May 1993 in Malmö, Sweden, the second child of a Turkish father and a Swedish mother. She started playing football at the age of five, following her older brother, and took her first steps in a mixed-gender team at Türk Anadolu FF, the sports club of Malmö's Turkish community. At eleven she moved to IF Limhamn Bunkeflo.

After spending some time in Sweden's under-17 women's national team, she received an invitation from the Turkish Football Federation and chose to play for Turkey. Because she did not yet speak Turkish well, she initially communicated with her teammates in English. She made her debut for the Turkey U19 side on 11 September 2010 in the first qualifying round of the 2011 UEFA Women's U-19 Championship against Romania and scored both of the team's goals. She was promoted to the senior national team in 2011 and scored Turkey's only goal in her first appearance, against Spain in qualifying for UEFA Women's Euro 2013.

A defender, she has played in Sweden's Damallsvenskan for FC Rosengård and Linköpings FC.